I have mentioned Ace Performance many times on these pages. It is the performance shop that was started by my good friend Baer Connard almost ten years ago. I frequent it often. Sometimes I just go there to have lunch with an old friend. Sometimes Baer calls me to come over and check out some weird/interesting car. Other times I take my own cars for service there. Sometimes Baer finds out that I’m sporting around in something fun and says that he just has to see it.

You’d think that a shop with such large array of projects and events would make a good reality show. But no, it wouldn’t. All those reality television shows are not about cars, they’re about people. There are characters and all of them want to be actors. And then there is drama which usually comes from people’s inability to plan, schedule, manage, and communicate. That’s what makes good, or at least dramatic television, but that’s also a bunch of bullshit. The real reality if those TV shows is that they show how such businesses should not be operated. And that’s exactly what Ace Performance is not.

When I recently went there to drive Matt Farah’s Hashtag Million Mile Lexus, I took a walk around the shop and I took some pics. It is not the quantity of vehicles that are there but rather the differences between. Those include various Ariel Atoms, road racing Porsches and Bimmers, dragster Camaro, 90’s JDM exotica, an Escort Mk II rally car, drift cars, classic Americana, and McFly’s 4Runner. Check out the pictures below.

Even basic Toyotas come here for service.

Datsun! The 300GT next to it is a VR-4 and it’s getting a complete overhaul. One of Ace’s customers had one just like that when he was young. Nostalgia is a bitch and it forced him to get another one.

The SVO was my first new car. I sold it for a truck with AC as I was moving to Texas.

thinknoonchi

First car for me was the precursor – 83.5 Ford Mustang GT Turbo. Loved it so much I had to buy the SVO too. Fantastic car 🙂

Jose Merced

Well, well, well… Ace is getting recognition. Good for them! What a beautiful R32 they have there….

outback_ute

Reality TV ought to give ‘normal’ shops that do interesting things a try. Look at the resto project updates that Jay Leno does for example. Respect the audience and treat them as adults, I’m sure people would be more inclined to watch something real rather than an easily seen through set-up.

Zentropy

I love the variety!! Looks like a great place to “drop in” with coffee and bagels so you can hang out without guilt.